Aetna Names Chief Medical Officer

"Dr. Brennan joins Aetna as a nationally respected expert inquality of care with specific expertise in the health insuranceindustry, and as a practicing internist," said Williams. "Beyondimpeccable credentials, he has displayed a passion and talent forcreating a partnership between the insurance industry and the medicalcommunity. I am extremely pleased that Dr. Brennan has chosen tocontinue his career at Aetna, where he can put his experience andthought leadership to work for our nearly 15 million membersnationwide."

"Our relationships with physicians have improved significantly,and we are confident that this will continue," said Aetna Chairman andChief Executive Officer John W. Rowe, M.D. "I am thrilled that Dr.Brennan has agreed to join Aetna, and know that he will be aphenomenal addition to our team. He is widely regarded as an expert inclinical quality, and has focused on opportunities to reduce medicalerrors. Through his work as leader of the Brigham and Women'sPhysicians Organization and as past chairman of the board of theAmerican Board of Internal Medicine, he has a deep knowledge of issuesfacing physicians, as well as how health plans can best interface withthe clinical community."

Dr. Brennan takes over from Dr. Charles Cutler, who has beenserving as interim chief medical officer. "I want to thank Dr. Cutlerfor an excellent job over the past few months," said Williams. "Hewill continue as Aetna's national medical director for qualitymanagement."

Dr. Brennan's career with Brigham and Women's Hospital, located inBoston, Mass., began in 1987. In 1992, he became director of qualitymeasurement and improvement. In 1997, he became president and CEO ofBrigham and Women's Physician Hospital Organization, a position heheld through 2005, and also assumed the additional responsibility ofpresident and CEO of Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization. Inhis various roles at Brigham and Women's, he was responsible formanaged care contract negotiations, designing both primary care andspecialty medical management and incentive programs, and overseeingthe merger of seven specialty physician foundations and eight hospitaldepartments into a single physician organization. Dr. Brennan alsoserved as a practicing internist at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

In his academic work, he has served as professor of medicine atHarvard Medical School since 1995, and professor of law and publichealth at Harvard School of Public Health since 1992. Since 1987, hehas published 230 peer-reviewed papers and four books. He is also afrequent presenter on health care policy, ethics and law.

Dr. Brennan received his M.D. and M.P.H. degrees from Yale MedicalSchool, his J.D. degree from Yale Law School, and his M.A. degree fromOxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He completed hisinternship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts GeneralHospital. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the NationalAcademy of Sciences.

As one of the nation's leading providers of health care, dental,pharmacy, group life, behavioral health, disability and long-term carebenefits, Aetna puts information and helpful resources to work for itsapproximately 14.65 million medical members, 13.03 million dentalmembers, 9.34 million pharmacy members and 13.68 million groupinsurance members to help them make better informed decisions abouttheir health care and protect their finances against health-relatedrisks. Aetna provides easy access to cost-effective health carethrough a nationwide network of more than 700,000 health careprofessionals, including over 418,000 primary care and specialistdoctors and 4,231 hospitals. For more information, please visitwww.aetna.com. (Figures as of September 30, 2005)